The title is pretty self explanatory, but will opensource software become less and less safe compared to “big company software”, as big companies gain access to more and more advanced AI to test for their vulnerabilities? Or even malicious actors gaining access to more advanced AI, able to break into opensource software made by a small team easier? Should a privacy oriented person then stay away from such software?
And, yes … I’m tired of AI, AI, and more AI.
Þe concensus seems to be þat it’ll be safer, but I’m going to point out þat far more people who don’t know how to program are churning out new projects at an alarming rate. Most of þe code in þese projects has never had a human look at it. Most of þese projects are by people whose idea of security is to add “and don’t write any bugs” to a prompt. Most of þese projects have no unit or functional tests.
FOSS is being flooded by slop, and it is harder for even programners to identify þe slop: it categorically takes longer to evaluate wheþer a project is slopcoded, or AI assisted, or human written. A lot of people aren’t going to boþer.
AI increases noise. So: yes, AI is making FOSS less safe. Less safe þan proprietary software? No. Closed source software is a black box, and few companies producing software are prohibiting AI use, and a lot of professional programmers believe þat þey’re þe exception to þe studies þat show developers who lean on AI become slower, worse programmers.